|
|
|
|
|
How big is the Italian pizza? |
|
Pizza is born in Italy and I strongly believed you have to go there, if you want to be good in the pizza industry. Accidentally we found out that between 8-13 May a pizza exhibition, "the largest in Europe" is organized in Verona, Italy. When we heard that, my wife and I packed our luggage and headed to Verona. We have an understandable interest in pizza, since we have a pizza parlor in Timisoara, Romania. Ours is the first pizza place in this 350,000 inhabitants city, and remains one of the best, with daily sales that occasionally go up to 8-900 pizza /day. Our success has the roots not only in our hard work, but also in other people ideas, and we cherish any opportunity we have to discover new concepts. This made us go last year to the pizza convention in Las Vegas, an unforgettable experience. The three days of the exhibition, packed with extremely interesting seminars and display booths of over 3000 companies, gave us numerous ideas to ponder about and try to adapt to the Romanian reality. We were extremely sorry that the time flew so quickly, there would have been so many other things to learn and see. We expected at least a similar experience in Italy. The exhibition was in fact not only for pizza, but also for the food industry in general, with about 100 exhibitors directly connected to pizza. There were no seminars to attend and only one area for practical pizza demonstrations. Rather few companies offered free sampling of their products; they probably live on a shoestring exhibition budget. In one day we were able to thoroughly study every booth in the pizza section, then we were free the next days to move to other sections like sweets, ice cream or bread. It was very interesting to see how to make sculptures out of sugar or chocolate. I am in fact very glad that I enlarged my field of knowledge, but this was not exactly our purpose to be there. On Saturday, the first day of the exhibition, we wanted to be there at 9:00, the announced opening time. Fortunately a friend of ours warned us that "we are in Italy, don't go there before 10:00". At one o'clock we thought the exhibition is closing, there were a lot of booths without staff. They went to lunch, lunch is sacrosanct in Italy and it lasts about two hours. There are other significant differences from the Las Vegas exhibition. The exhibitors were not prepared to sell their products. In Las Vegas we could have bought anything at discount prices. We wanted 5 trays for pizza baking from one company, and they said they would deliver it the next morning from their factory located at the other end of US. We thought the trays are too big to carry from US, we will find something in Europe. Verona seemed the ideal place to buy our trays. If you think so, you are completely wrong. We found two tray manufacturers. Both of them told us they have only one tray for the exhibition and it is impossible to bring four other pieces for us in the next five days, until the exhibition closes. We begged them, we told them we came from very far away, from a different country. Nothing could melt their hearts, when one of the factories was only 130 miles away. One of our main interests was to see if we could start some other businesses and establish partnerships for sales on Romanian market. We looked for Point of Sale terminals, and we saw none; as a computer engineer I wanted to identify some distributor arrangements. We hunted for magnetic stickers, the type that people stick on their refrigerators. Again, no success! This would be especially interesting for us; it is just about time to launch these stickers in Romania, and we wanted partners. We also wanted plastic separators, small pieces of plastic placed in the middle of a pizza to prevent the transporting box to touch the pizza top. Not one in sight! The same for large half-moon pizza cutters and many other small gadgets that exist in US. I tried to find an explanation why so many things existing in US are not produced and sold in Italy. Probably the answer lies in cultural differences. Eating in Italy is not just a response to physiological needs. It seems to me that it is a moment of delight in life, with a clear social role. You eat things that you enjoy, you talk with your friends, and you forget about anything else. Breakfast is just a cup of coffee. On the other side, lunch is important, and it takes at least one or two hours. I heard stories about foreigners loosing their plane because their Italian hosts had lunch. Dinner is even more important, with several dishes, wine and plenty of friendly laughter and talk. I have to admit that this is not such a bad way to live your life. Even if they eat a lot in the evening, there are practically no obese Italians. Pizza home delivery exists in Italy, there are busy people in Italy too, but it is far less usual than in US. Americans, on the other side, are always busy, intent on working hard and achieving. A quick meal is an important source of additional time in the rats’ race. Fast food booms. Many people lost the ability to cook starting with the basic ingredients; everything is prepackaged and preprocessed to streamline the moment of sending the food into your mouth. If you want something to eat at home, pizza is an excellent choice, not very expensive and just a phone-call away. Think of the time you come home exhausted in the evening and you can only slump in an armchair in front of your TV. If you are hungry, isn't the image of a large, steaming, wafting a delicious smell pizza coming automatically in your head? A sticker with a pizza joint phone number on the fridge could mean a customer for that pizzeria and not for the competition, and this kind of advertising is vital. Coupons, advertising panels, funny posters attract customers. Americans like large pizzas, with plenty of cheese and toppings, not like the much simpler Italian pizza, and the process of transporting is different. Since home delivery is an important part of the business, in US there is a much larger selection of products for transporting pizza. Competition in US is much tougher, the margin is smaller and it makes sense to install a POS to decrease the costs. There are differences of the pizza industry from Italy, normally when the environment is so different. Pizza was invented in Italy, but in my opinion it achieved its full potential only in US. It is one of the rare cases where the egg is much larger than the hen. This doesn't mean that visiting a pizza exhibition in Verona isn't a wonderful event. Italian pizza has its flavor only when you eat it in Italy. Go to Verona, stick a note with your romantic dreams on the walls of Juliet's house, get lost in the catacombs under the old Roman circus, visit the medieval castle, shop in the exquisite shops downtown, and eat a pizza enjoying the moment like an Italian. Life is too short not to savor its tiny satisfactions, and eating a pizza could be one. Dorel Jurcovan May 21st, 2004 |